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There were feelings of hurt and anger that she left me all of those years ago, but mostly, I was reminded how much I loved her - and still loved her. I guess I had a lot of unresolved feelings about her. I probably should ask her if we could talk, but she was also grieving her dad. I knew how close they were and I respected that.
I was close to home when I drove past the small clearing people used to park their cars when they went hiking. There was a car in it, so I decided to pull in and check it out. Hiking in this weather was a horrible idea. Hopefully someone was sitting in their car, waiting it out, but if not, I might have to venture out.
It had been hard to tell in the rain what kind of car it was but as I got closer, I recognized it immediately as Jade’s mom’s car.
Shit.
There didn’t seem to be anyone in it which meant she was probably out hiking and stuck in this horrible weather.
It didn’t surprise me she would come out here. She had spent a lot of time with her dad hiking the mountains and she probably needed to feel close to him. She and I went hiking all the time as well when we were dating. While Jade loved to hike, she wasn’t very good at listening to us when it came to trying to teach her survival skills. She would dismiss us both, telling us it didn’t matter as she was never going to go alone anyway.
But here she was.
I parked my truck and grabbed my rain coat and hat from the passenger seat. I hoped Jade had at least been able to find some shelter to ride out the storm. It had been a long time since she hiked out here and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.
I got out of the truck and headed into the woods. The rain made it hard to see very far and I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack. I couldn’t just leave her out here though and not at least try to find her. We had a lot of history together and I respected her parents as well. If nothing else, I did it for her old man.
I called out her name and kept walking. The storm had let up some, the rain no longer seeming to come down in sheets, but I knew there was another one right behind it. Hopefully I could find her before it got bad again.
I knew these woods like the back of my hand. I not only worked for park services, but I lived here. Each step only took me closer to my home. In fact, at this point, if I found her, we were closer to my cabin than to my truck.
I continued to call her name and finally, I thought I heard someone call back. I tried to follow where it was coming from.
“Jade!” I called out.
“I’m over here!” I heard her yelling.
Eventually I rounded the corner and saw her huddled under an overhang, soaked to the bone. She was hugging her knees to her chest and was shivering uncontrollably. I ran to her best I could and scooped her up into my arms.
“What were you thinking, Jade?” Now that I’d found her, I could feel the anger creeping in.
She shook her head and I noticed she’d been crying. “Not now, Nate. I know. I can hear Dad in my head already.”
“Ok,” I nodded. She was right. Scolding her now wouldn’t help anyone. My goal was to get her somewhere safe and get her warm again.
I crouched next to her and watched the rain come down. If the radar was correct, it was about to rain real hard soon. Now would be the time to get her to my cabin.
“You think you can walk? We’re actually almost to my cabin. We can go there and get you dried off.”
She turned to look at me. “You have a cabin up here? Just like you always said you would some day?”
I flashed a smile at her. “You remembered.”
“Of course I did. It was all you could talk about.” She rolled her eyes but a smile played at the corner of her lips. “Good for you, Nate. I’m glad you got what you wanted.”
Our eyes met and I found myself getting lost in those green eyes of hers, just like I used to. “Well, I didn’t get everything I wanted, Jade.” I shrugged and looked away.
Jade opened her mouth as if to say something but clamped it shut. The moment was over and we had to get to my cabin.
I crawled from under the overhang and stood up, offering her my hand. She took it and scooted out after me. She was soaking wet and a hot mess, but Jade was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. But she had left me.
I focused, trying to act like she was any other hiker I would have rescued at work. Except she wasn’t.
“Ok, let’s go before the next storm. There’s another doozy close behind that first one.”
5
JADE
